Bandai's 1/48 AT-ST "Chicken Walker"

[72nders]

Hello all,

Well, this is my second post, it’s Bandai’s 1/48 AT-ST (manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards) aka Chicken Walker, I finished this one today after about 2 months of work,

the whole thing was painted with Tamiya’s XF-19 (sky grey) and then weathered with Abteilung 502 oils and some pigments, the base was painted with lifecolor’s german tank brown and then I added shrub tufts from Green Stuff.

I’m 14 years old and I’m still learning a lot, so any comments welcome.

Hope you enjoy it!

 

                                                                             

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

                                                                                 

 

                                                                                  

 

 

                                                                                    

 

 

                    

           

 

 

 

 

[ScaleModelHobbyist]

Looks good to me. Personally, I would give it a bit more weathering. Mainly because George Lucas’ goal was to make Star Wars look like a galaxy that had been “lived in” (i.e. run down and worn out). However, weathering is a matter of personal preference so you must do what you feel is right, of course. When weathering this particular kit, one has to be very careful what you products you use. Some modellers have reported their kits fell apart when they used washes (reportedly some reaction between the liquid in the wash and the plastic of this kit). You should be proud, you’ve had a couple of completions in a short period of time, well done.

[72nders]

On 7/13/2021 at 3:36 PM, ScaleModelHobbyist said:

Looks good to me. Personally, I would give it a bit more weathering. Mainly because George Lucas’ goal was to make Star Wars look like a galaxy that had been “lived in” (i.e. run down and worn out). However, weathering is a matter of personal preference so you must do what you feel is right, of course. When weathering this particular kit, one has to be very careful what you products you use. Some modellers have reported their kits fell apart when they used washes (reportedly some reaction between the liquid in the wash and the plastic of this kit). You should be proud, you’ve had a couple of completions in a short period of time, well done.

 

Hi Rob, thanks for your kind words and advice.

Generally, I don’t like to do too much weathering on my sci-fi models, especially Imperial ones, because I think the Rebel Alliance would’ve destroyed them way before they’d had a chance to get too dirty, but mostly because I like being able to see what the vehicle looked like when it came out of the factory.                                                                                                             

On the other hand, I think ships like the Millennium Falcon or Slave 1 should have more weathering on them since they are ships that have been used for a longer period of time and therefore have had more time to get dirty and start losing their paint jobs.                                                  

As for the washes on the AT-ST, I haven’t had any problems with my kit falling apart, I use an enamel wash over my acrylic paints; though if you use acrylic washes over acrylic paints, it might attack the paint underneath it.

[Pete in Lincs]

Great chicken walker. I quite like the subtle weathering. As you say, it has to come out of the factory sometime, so it makes a nice change.

Welcome to the site, and please keep your builds coming.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I like that too. I think your painting makes it look very businesslike and grim which suits the Imperial side of the conflict. It also highlights the ridiculous stance of the machine. It may look like a chicken but who would actually laugh at it? It put me in mind of those totalitarian armies who goose stepped through conquered cities, daring anyone to even smile.

 

Is it airbrushed or hand painted?

[72nders]

On 7/22/2021 at 12:41 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

I like that too. I think your painting makes it look very businesslike and grim which suits the Imperial side of the conflict. It also highlights the ridiculous stance of the machine. It may look like a chicken but who would actually laugh at it? It put me in mind of those totalitarian armies who goose stepped through conquered cities, daring anyone to even smile.

 

Is it airbrushed or hand painted?

 

Hi Bertie, thanks for your nice comment.

My AT-ST was painted with my wonderful Iwata Neo airbrush, which was a present from my dad after months of practicing with his airbrush, I usually only paint details and figures by brush.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Excellent. You are lucky to have such a generous and close mentor, and he is lucky to have someone to ment. (I couldn't interest any of my kids in the hobby, unfortunately.)

[Fletch0311]

This is really good. I wish I was that good at 14.....you're going to go far! 

 

Appreciate you have said you prefer cleaner weathering but if I may offer some small advice...look up chipping effects, like sponge chipping, it's really simple and easy to do and adds an extra dimension to models like these. You don't have to go mad with it either....less is more, but concentrate chipping on areas where there is likely to be contact with something, i.e. around the feet, the joints and where areas move or rub and even on edges where panels join - it'll add an aspect of realism.

 

Below are some work in progress shots for a kit I made for a friend, so it's not finished, but you can see the effect of chipping around the edges and on panels themselves.

 

Well done and keep up the good work 💪🏼

 

[Dr. Quack]

Love it - classic Star Wars!

Keep up the good work and let us see your future builds.

Q

[72nders]

On 7/31/2021 at 12:04 PM, Fletch0311 said:

This is really good. I wish I was that good at 14.....you're going to go far! 

 

Appreciate you have said you prefer cleaner weathering but if I may offer some small advice...look up chipping effects, like sponge chipping, it's really simple and easy to do and adds an extra dimension to models like these. You don't have to go mad with it either....less is more, but concentrate chipping on areas where there is likely to be contact with something, i.e. around the feet, the joints and where areas move or rub and even on edges where panels join - it'll add an aspect of realism.

 

Below are some work in progress shots for a kit I made for a friend, so it's not finished, but you can see the effect of chipping around the edges and on panels themselves.

 

Well done and keep up the good work 💪🏼

 

 

Hello Fletch, thanks for your advice.

I’ve experimented a little with chipping last year when I did my first sci-fi kit, Bandai’s 1/144 Slave 1, I had to do it twice over to get the result I wanted but, in the end, I was pretty happy.

Your AT-ST looks really good, the chipping allows you to see the metal body of the machine and it gives a really nice effect. What metallic paint did you use?

I like to do chipping mostly on rebel ships, like on Luke’ x-wing red 5 or on the snowspeeder which I both have in the stash.

I’d like to show a picture of my Slave 1, but sadly since we moved cross country a few months ago, all of the kits that I completed last year are still in boxes, to leave space in our small temporary cabinet for newer builds.

 

20 hours ago, Dr. Quack said:

Love it - classic Star Wars!

Keep up the good work and let us see your future builds.

Q

 

Thanks! Next up is my Bandai 1/72 X-wing Red 5 scheme, and Hobby 2000’s reboxing of Hasegawa’s 1/72 Sbd 2/3 Dauntless.

[Bandsaw Steve]

I think it looks great!

 

The only advice I would offer is to check the file size of the the photos you are posting. For me at least these took a long time to download onto my phone which makes me think they might be bigger than - say - 200kb file size. Apparently photos bigger than that take a lot of computer capacity to handle and tend to load very slowly. @Mike politely pointed this out to me last year when I made this mistake and he likes to raise awareness of this with other members.

 

BTW this is definitely not any kind of ‘telling off’ it’s just a suggestion to perhaps shrink your file sizes in future.

 

Looking forward to seeing that X wing. 👍

[Fletch0311]

On 01/08/2021 at 20:09, Oompa Loompa modelers said:

 

the chipping allows you to see the metal body of the machine and it gives a really nice effect. What metallic paint did you use?

 

 

I use a lot of Vallejo Air paints, the sponge chipping was done with a dark grey and then on corners and edges that have the most damage I use a tiny bit of Vallejo Air Aluminium with a small brush and accent it slightly. You can also use a just off-white grey (grey in this case, or lighter colour of the main body colour if something else) and very lightly run a thin line in a semi circle on the edge of a chip....this highlights it and makes it 'pop' for a little more depth. Below is a cheap Revell kit I did about a year ago that I used for some experimentation - some of the chips are slightly highlighted....I also used AK weathering pencils to blur and streak some chips as if damaged in battle etc. 

 

 

 

 

Another neat trick is to 'join' chips together using a thin paintbrush and the same colour paint used for the chips (definitely a less is more approach on this one) - it gives a more cracked appearance and makes damage look like its been there some time.

 

Hope it's of some help, good luck with your builds 

[Reelyator]

....Very Nice Oompa Loompa!

 

At the age of 14 i was not so patient to create a base for the models i have build;-)

[72nders]

On 8/3/2021 at 12:23 PM, Fletch0311 said:

I use a lot of Vallejo Air paints, the sponge chipping was done with a dark grey and then on corners and edges that have the most damage I use a tiny bit of Vallejo Air Aluminium with a small brush and accent it slightly. You can also use a just off-white grey (grey in this case, or lighter colour of the main body colour if something else) and very lightly run a thin line in a semi circle on the edge of a chip....this highlights it and makes it 'pop' for a little more depth. Below is a cheap Revell kit I did about a year ago that I used for some experimentation - some of the chips are slightly highlighted....I also used AK weathering pencils to blur and streak some chips as if damaged in battle etc. 

 

 

 

 

Another neat trick is to 'join' chips together using a thin paintbrush and the same colour paint used for the chips (definitely a less is more approach on this one) - it gives a more cracked appearance and makes damage look like its been there some time.

 

Hope it's of some help, good luck with your builds 

 

Hi Fletch, thank you again for your kind advice.

That’s a smashing snowspeeder, looks like it jumped off the screen from Hoth; I’ve also got a snowspeeder in the stash, though it’s the Bandai one, but now that I’ve seen it done, I think the Revell one looks very good as well. I’ve never tried sponge chipping before; I usually do the hairspray method but I might try it some time, your results are really good. I didn’t know about highlighting chipped areas or joining chips before, it seems interesting, so I’ll give it a closer look. I have some AK weathering pencils too, I like to scrape of the tip of the pencil with a knife and then use the shavings as pigments, though I do have pigments from other brands; I haven’t used them for streaking yet.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Edited August 4, 2021 by Oompa Loompa modelers
typing error

[Fletch0311]

On 04/08/2021 at 18:58, Oompa Loompa modelers said:

 

Hi Fletch, thank you again for your kind advice.

That’s a smashing snowspeeder, looks like it jumped off the screen from Hoth; I’ve also got a snowspeeder in the stash, though it’s the Bandai one, but now that I’ve seen it done, I think the Revell one looks very good as well. I’ve never tried sponge chipping before; I usually do the hairspray method but I might try it some time, your results are really good. I didn’t know about highlighting chipped areas or joining chips before, it seems interesting, so I’ll give it a closer look. I have some AK weathering pencils too, I like to scrape of the tip of the pencil with a knife and then use the shavings as pigments, though I do have pigments from other brands; I haven’t used them for streaking yet.                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

No worries, always nice to share tips etc.

 

I have the Bandai snowspeeder too but it's in the stash, the Revell one is smaller and quite cheap (£6) and an easier build overall bit lacks detail. The Bandai one has positionable flaps and better cockpit details.....can't wait to make it!